One with bald eagles

Thursday

Dianne Benson Davis is a woman so evidently driven by passion, her words seem propelled by it. From the outset, any discussion of the animals and mission she has dedicated her life to flows smooth and sure as the flight of one of the 38 nesting pairs of bald eagles that now inhabit our region, thanks to the efforts of Davis and others starting in the early 1980s.

In her book, “Eagle One: Raising Bald Eagles, A Wildlife Memoir,” Davis details her life as a wildlife enthusiast and conservator, focusing on the four months she spent alone in the wilds of the Quabbin Reservoir raising eight baby eagles as a fundamental part of reintroducing the endangered bald eagle to Massachusetts.

Having loved animals her whole life, Davis started her career as a volunteer at age 17 when the Worcester Science Center (Now the EcoTarium) first opened its doors. After several years at the Science Center, she became an animal rehabilitator and opened “It’s an Animal’s World” with her then-husband to introduce animals to different civic groups and foster an awareness and appreciation for wildlife, particularly with children. From there she became a falconer, a hunting partner with a trained hawk, beginning an informative and compassionate bond with her hawk that would last 20 years and breed in her a deeper understanding of the wild’s tribulations.

In 1982, in an attempt to reintroduce the bald eagle to the region, Mass Wildlife asked Davis to help raise baby bald eagles at Quabbin Reservoir. Davis was busy raising her daughter at this time, but in 1985 Davis took on the challenge. “I was able to raise the eight eagles that year and catch all their food and take care of them and do this all remotely so they couldn’t see me. I would put food down a chute so they wouldn’t see the fish coming from a person…that way they didn’t imprint on people and think of themselves as little people when they grew up.”

The bald eagle was first declared an endangered species with the passage of the federal Endangered Species Act in 1973. Despite having been widespread enough in the 1700s to have been chosen as our national emblem, the bald eagle population underwent rapid decline due to loss of habitat, food contamination, hunting and markedly, the use of DDT through the early- to mid-twentieth century. DDT accumulated in the food chain and caused weakened shells in the eggs of mothers who unwittingly consumed it, decimating the population through an inability to successfully procreate.

“We hadn’t had hardly any bald eagles in the state since 1905,” Davis says, “so here we were trying to reintroduce the bald eagles to Massachusetts now that DDT was eliminated back in the '70s.” The group strategically moved eight baby bald eagles from parts of the US and Canada where they were not an endangered species, that were six weeks old, one from each nest, so another baby would be left in the nest for the parents to raise. Once the birds were relocated to the Quabbin Reservoir, Davis says, “I would catch their fish every day, 20 pounds of fish through nets, and chop up the fish twice a day, then feed them remotely through the chute so that they were growing but not associating any of this with people.”

The methodology used by Mass Wildlife to repopulate Massachusetts relied on a process known as hacking. “It’s a falconry term for raising birds to adulthood and then releasing them. And then you start working with the bird when you’re a falconer, but in this case we were raising the birds to 12 weeks of age, putting a transmitter on each one of their tails so I could follow them after they were released and still put food out along the shores when they were sitting in the trees along the area.”

So for four months, Davis lived alone in the reservoir, jogging two miles daily to stay in shape lest she need to protect herself against any trespassers. On some weekends, another Mass Wildlife worker would relieve her so she could return home to her husband and young daughter, spending her time there cooking and freezing two weeks of meals for her family to last them while she would be gone again. Then, back to the wilderness she would return, to provide for her other family, unacknowledged, observing them from a distance. Twice a day she would catch and chop up 10 pounds of fish for the young eagles, feed them in secret, and meticulously track each bird’s progress.

For Davis, the experience was transcendental, and allowed her not only to foster the ecosystem around her through caring for the birds, but also to become more deeply involved in it, to recall the primal human memory.

“I learned from listening to [the loons'] different calls, there were three or four distinct calls that they would make and that would tell me what was going on on the lake because they had the advantage of seeing areas better than I would from the water. If an eagle flew by they gave a yodel, which was a real high-pitched noise that goes on and on and on that was really beautiful. And if a boat came by they would give a specific call and I would look out on the water and about 10 minutes later see the boat coming around the corner. It was just fantastic to be a part of the land.”

Success for the project, however, did not conclude with the baby eagles’ maturation; they would need to settle and reproduce in the region for repopulation to begin. Between 1982 and 1988, 44 birds were released from the program in hopes that some nesting families would flourish. “In 1989 the first nest in Mass. was at the Quabbin Reservoir, and one of the things that I was so happy about was that one of my birds, Marjorie, she actually grew up and nested with Ross (one of the first pair released in 1982), so that was so, so fantastic.”

Now, Davis says, there are 38 nesting pairs in Massachusetts, and the population is growing, nesting throughout New England and New York, with over 400 chicks banded in wild nests since 1989. “It’s gratifying that the project worked, and that so many people had a hand in it.”

For Davis, writing her memoir about this time and about her experiences as a wildlife practitioner has always been a part of the plan. Since having a pet squirrel in the fourth grade, “I just would look at an animal beyond what it was and see how it reacted to everything.” Davis says she “realized how hard it was for animals to get their food and to survive every day… having a 20-year relationship with a hawk, I learned a lot about animals and the environment, and that all made me realize, even when I was 20 years old, that I needed to write a book. And then I just lived a life with the animals.”

When it came time to write the book, after 27 years, Davis included everything, “from attempting to raise a baby polar bear back in 1976, to raising red-tailed hawk chicks, not myself as a rehabilitator but giving them to my hawk and letting her raise the chicks.”

Davis’ memoir is primarily a way to communicate with the masses in a broader sense, to spread her message that everyone can make a difference if they go out and volunteer. And perhaps even more importantly, to spread the message of the wild, too often choked out by the bustling sounds of industry.

“My goal is really to meet people that are saying ‘I have a passion for animals too, how do I get involved?’ I want to get this book out so people can see that there are different avenues to get involved and also so people can see the behaviors of these animals… and to see these animals in more of a light than just an animal on TV or an animal in a zoo.” While she is not trying to anthropomorphize the species she works with, Davis says, “Animals are trying to make a living out there and they’re protecting their family and protecting their resources for their mates and themselves, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Meet Davis at one of her upcoming book signings. She will be signing copies of “Eagle One: Raising Bald Eagles, A Wildlife Memoir” on February 21, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, 113 Goodnow Rd. in Princeton, and on March 12, at 7 p.m. at the Athol Bird and Nature Club, 100 Main St., Athol.